1. When the days get long and the weather gets hotter,
Landlocked people flock to the water.
Out-of-town cars with boats on trailers.
Doctors and lawyers are weekend sailors.
Down from the city for a stay in the lake home.
Trying to forget about the weight of the bank loan.
High of ninety, let me guess what the plans are:
Sleep late, quick lunch, head for the sand bar.
Speed-boats buzzing around at full throttle
While their captains take pulls from bottles.
Given the crowded, chaotic conditions,
It’s a miracle there aren’t more collisions.
Drop the anchor, let the day drip past.
Life tastes better when sipped from a glass.
Doze off to the sputtering roar of Jet Skis
Drowning out the sound of your unmet needs.

Chorus: Welcome to the Heart of the Lakes.
Everybody under twelve’s gotta wear a life vest.
Welcome to the Heart of the Lakes.
Adrift, if you wanna swim home, be my guest.
Welcome to the Heart of the Lakes.
Sunbathing beauties: unattainable dates.
Welcome to the Heart of the Lakes.
This time I’m gonna jump the wake.

Bridge 1: If Backwater Lake doesn’t suit your mood,
Just head to Webster right through the tubes
Or go a few miles up on State Road 13:
Syracuse Lake, Papakeechie, Wawasee.

2. If you don’t own a boat or have any lake access,
You’ve got to make friends based on their address.
Play your cards right and by summer you might
Be killing time on the lake whenever you like.
And I bet your parents know somebody with a pontoon.
No style or sex appeal but it’s got room
For the whole family, the hosts, and a cooler
To go on a slow-dusk lake-homes tour.
Could be a park beach is just your speed:
A little strip of sand and ducks to feed.
But go out too far and you’re into the seaweed,
And zebra mussels are gonna make your feet bleed.
I don’t like fishing, but on a nice night
I see on the lake the dots of white lights,
And even I know that it must be exciting
When the crappie and muskie are biting.

Chorus: Welcome to the Heart of the Lakes.
Everybody under twelve’s gotta wear a life vest.
Welcome to the Heart of the Lakes.
Adrift, if you wanna swim home, be my guest.
Welcome to the Heart of the Lakes.
Sunbathing beauties: unattainable dates.
Welcome to the Heart of the Lakes.
This time I’m gonna jump the wake.

Long Bridge: Do you ever wonder what’s under the surface?
In the muck at the bottom, lost and forgotten?
Do you ever want to see beneath the waves?
Fish of legendary sizes, they’re no one’s prizes.
Have you ever seen a storm moving over the water?
Rain like a curtain, white caps surging.
Have you ever the seen the lake so still and calm?
Geese fly right past, don’t want to break the glass.

Bridge 2: Both Barbees, Sechrist, Irish, and Kuhn.
Banning and Sawmill and Tippecanoe.
The whole Chain of Lakes and Grassy Creek too.
Ethan used to cry if he didn’t see Shoe.

3. On some of these lakes at the break of dawn
You can bear witness to a plague of swans.
Shirtless kids’ll go fishing off piers
Even if nothing’s been caught there for years.
Never learned to wakeboard, barely water-skied.
I thought a wild tube-ride’d be all I’d need.
A white-knuckled grip is a minimal skill.
The imminent spill is the principle thrill.
Come hell or high water, man recreates.
And a certain kind of man just gets the lakes.
A certain kind of man wants nothing more
Than to leave his troubles stuck on the shore.
One night, Dutch, his German girl, and I
Took his parents’ boat out for a look at the sky.
Found a good spot, cut the engine, laid back.
I saw twenty shooting stars, fade to black.